ABANDONMENT AND DEPOPULATION NEAR MEDINACELI

The province of Soria is one of the most affected in Spain due to depopulation and rural abandonment. In this case, near Medinaceli, there are some villages totally abandoned and forgotten by all, except for those who with tears in their eyes had to leave the houses in which many previous generations lived.

The isolation, the hardness of the climate, the poor quality of the land for agriculture that only allowed subsistence crops, the absence of infrastructures that facilitated access and the progressive deterioration and disappearance of such basic services as schools and doctors, among others several factors, forced the old settlers to abandon their homes and lands. Their destinations were varied, but were the nearby cities, Guadalajara, Zaragoza or Madrid, the cities that hosted these social exiles.

Many of them, especially the older ones, suffered in this process of adaptation from rural environment to the urban environment. Some, with difficulty and suffering, achieved a traumatic adaptation. Others, however, would end up dying of grief.

Consider this gallery as a tribute to all those suffering social exiled.